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I’ve been a fanatic in a bunch of different ways. Keeping sleep schedules religiously, keeping streaks and on mantras. And I still am, in many areas. More confidently and hopefully a bit more thoughtfully.
Being a fanatic is often thought of as being religious or political, but that’s quite limiting for a behaviour that’s present in many more areas of life. Being a fanatic is, according to Amos Oz, being a person who can only count to one. Meaning you only have one solution or can only take one single perspective.
In some areas of life that’s great. It makes life a lot easier. In others it’ll make you limited.
Reflecting on what areas being a fanatic serves you and when it doesn’t has been useful to me. It’s led me to think of when I want to be fanatic, how fanatic I want to be and in what ways I want to present that part of me to the world.
I hope this inspires you to do the same.
→ Fanatics have less fun
When I think of the areas of life where I’m a fanatic, I see a closed mindset. I see limits and barriers set up to preserve the perspective of the fanatic. That’s really useful.
And in most cases it’s really boring! Thinking I’m right or thinking I have the answer shuts all my explorative and curious tendencies out. It’s a form of keeping a set path, and that’s not always the most fun, joyful or again, explorative state to be in.
→ Leverage the power of being a zealot
That being said, there’s enormous power in being convinced or determined. And if there’s anything fanaticism can do, it is create a determined individual.
Leverage that where you can and want to. I have, and it frees up a bunch of capacity, anxiety and indecisiveness.
That can be done in many areas of life. I’ve done it with exercise for the past 8 months: I’m an exercise-fanatic. I exercise, move my body in some way, every single day. There is no alternative to me. I prioritise it over almost everything else (sleep being the most important one) and make sure to create the time to exercise. And I have.
I was visiting some friends a couple of weeks ago. I’d given myself some leeway in terms of actually exercising for the weekend, but was determined to close the rings on my apple watch. At 23:30, I hadn’t yet. All three of us were drunk and tired, but I started doing push ups until the rings were closed. That’s the kind of priority exercise has in my life.
It might not be fun, and it might not be comfortable. But this time, I’ve chosen this path myself. For now.
<aside> <img src="/icons/exclamation-mark_gray.svg" alt="/icons/exclamation-mark_gray.svg" width="40px" /> Oh, and the whole thing is edited with Descript to be able to have the subtitles. It also spares you of all my uhms and ahs, which is the reason to why it jumps every now and then.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtUSN4_Dr1o&ab_channel=CaspianAlmerud